


Romance in the Air... Port

by DramaticGarbage



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Prinxiety - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 20:36:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17290973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DramaticGarbage/pseuds/DramaticGarbage
Summary: Single Dad Virgil is on his way to a start a new life for himself and his young son... Luckily he meets someone in the airport willing to help him out.





	Romance in the Air... Port

Roman settled early at the gate for his flight, getting comfortable in the seat and pulling his laptop out of his backpack. He had had a nice long weekend getaway, visiting some family back out in his hometown, but he was definitely ready to head back home. He slipped his headphones on over his ears and flipped through the movies he had downloaded, laughing at the selection of kid’s films that he had put on for his niece. After selecting something a little more entertaining for his age range and sitting back, sipping on his soda, waiting to hear over the speaker that it was time to board.

It was a good while before he heard some muffled announcement from the speakers. He reached up to slide one side of his earphones back off his ear so he could figure out what they were being informed of.

“-ssengers with small children, and any passengers requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Regular boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time. Thank you.”

Oh, so he was still good. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his boarding pass, double checking his group number for boarding. Group 3, meaning he had a little more time to keep watching his movie. Roman decided to leave one side of his headphones off, just to be safe so he could continue to listen for more updates.

Across the terminal, Virgil was rushing up to his gate, running late, and knowing he had missed his group to board. He rushed along, pushing his young son’s stroller while also trying to manage the heavy bag hanging from his shoulder, a carry on stuffed in the storage area of the stroller itself, and of course little Patton’s Winnie the Pooh backpack. Just as he finally managed to reached the gate area, he heard the announcement.

“Now boarding group 3 for flight PX1822, Direct from New Orleans to San Francisco.”

Virgil maneuvered his way to the back of the line, letting out a ragged breath as he scrambled into his bag to find his and his son’s tickets.

At the sound of his group being called, Roman closed down his movie and slipped his laptop back into his backpack. As he went to put his headphones back in the smaller pocket he let out another soft chuckle, seeing a small pink pair that his niece must have forgotten to take. With a smile, he dropped his headphones on top of them and grabbed his boarding pass, moving up to the line to await boarding.

Roman couldn’t help but notice that the man infront of him was struggling. He had like 4 bags, a toddler, and a stroller… And he didn’t look like he weighed nearly as much as all he was trying to manage. Roman slipped his backpack up onto both of his arms to get it completely out of the way before he leaned slightly forward to get his attention.

“….Hey, man? Could I help you out a bit? You look like you have a lot you’re trying to deal with.”

Virgil was trying to get the carry on out of the stroller so he could get Patton out and then fold it up, he knew he would have to stow the stroller up near the front of the plane, so it would be better to get that ready now. He heard a voice from behind him and turned… And of course, what was it that he saw? A gorgeous man right behind him… He had been so momentarily thrown off he almost didn’t comprehend the words that had been said to him. But luckily, his mind caught up after a moment.

“Oh! Uh…” Virgil almost wanted to refuse, not wanting to inconvenience this stranger but.. Glancing over him, his arms had to be nearly as big around as Virgil’s legs were. And he did offer… “…Honestly, if you wouldn’t mind. I have to admit I’m struggling a bit here.”

“Of course, it’s no problem. …Is your bag a little stuck there?” Roman asked, looking over what the man had been attempting.

“..Yeah, I need to get that out so I can put it overhead, and the stroller has to fold up and go up near the front.” Virgil nodded.

“Gotcha, here. Let me.” Roman smiled, moving closer and looking over the problem. “Hmm… Can you hold this for me for a sec?” He held his half empty soda out to him, Virgil taking it so Roman could crouch down and extract the heavy bag from the stroller compartment. Once he had managed that, he slung it up onto his shoulder like it was nothing, also grabbing Virgil’s other bag off the handle.

Virgil watched in awe, seeing how easy it was for this handsome Good Samaritan to solve his problem. Letting him take care of that, he moved around the stroller to finally check in on his little boy. Patton was immediately looking up at him, his eyes wide behind his big glasses and his arms clutching his plush stuffed pig. Virgil’s expression immediately softened, leaning down to scoop Patton into his arms and balance him on his hip.

“Hey buddy, how are you doing? You ok?” He asked softly, looking over him.

Patton nodded. Virgil had explained to him that they were going to be flying, and the normally very happy three-year-old was understandably nervous, but he was doing his best to be brave. “Uh-huh. ‘m ok, Daddy.”

Virgil softly smiled back to him, holding him close and letting him lean into him for comfort. He slowly turned back to check in on the helpful stranger, seeing that once Virgil had taken Patton from the stroller, he had taken it upon himself to fold it, and also hoist that up. Virgil had a moment’s pause, firstly because it was impressive he had managed to carry just about everything that Virgil had been struggling with, and secondly because he had figured out how to handle the stroller so quickly.

“Wow, thank you so much. That was a huge help.” Virgil said, drawing his attention back to him.

Roman looked up, leaning the stroller against himself and turning to Virgil, smiling as he saw the visibly nervous little boy in his arms. “Oh, it’s no problem at all.”

“Well, I can start working on carrying that all on now…” Virgil said, mostly to himself as he looked over all of the bags. He’d probably have to have Patton walk on himself, and carry his own backpack.. The stroller was fairly heavy and..

“Oh, dude. Let me help, seriously. I can at least get this to your seat. Besides, you have something much more important to carry.” Roman smiled warmly, looking at Patton who’s wide eyes were still trained on Virgil.

“…Are you sure?” Virgil asked, still surprised by his generosity.

“Of course. I may have to hand you something back, just so I can get my boarding pass out so we can get on…” Roman looked over himself and back to Virgil, seeing him still holding his half empty bottle of soda. “Oh, would you mind just throwing that out? I’ll get a new one on the plane or something.” He asked, nodding to the bottle. Virgil nodded and turned, dropping it in the trash before turning back and seeing Roman holding out the tiny Winnie the Pooh backpack. “How about this?”

Virgil gave him a playfully incredulous look as he took the bag and slung it up onto a shoulder, but Roman just smiled back cheekily and followed behind them as they got to the front of the line and had their passes scanned. Roman could just hear Patton mumbling a little nervously to Virgil, wondering about the bridge they had walked onto and the confusing interior of the plane. Roman’s heart went out to the small boy, hoping that he didn’t have too hard of a time on this flight. All he could do at the moment was follow behind, pausing near the front so they could put the stroller where it needed to go, and stopping when Virgil stopped to sit Patton in the middle seat of their assigned row. Roman handed Virgil’s smaller bag over to him before taking the heavy carry on and loading it up easily into the bin above their row.

Virgil watched in slight awe yet again, how had he managed to do that so easily? He knew that bag was definitely heavy. “Wow, thank you again, seriously. I don’t know how we would have managed all that without your help.”

“Oh no problem at all. Glad to help! I better get off to my seat though before I hold up the flow of traffic.” Roman smiled, pulling out his boarding pass to double check his seat number. 14C, an aisle seat. He glanced at the seats Virgil and Patton were occupying… 14A and 14B, window and center. “…Well. That sure is convenient.” He chuckled.

“Hm?” Virgil asked, looking back at him as he scooted past Patton to take the window seat.

“…Looks like we’re gonna have a bit more time together.” Roman chuckled, slipping off his backpack and plopping down in the seat next to Patton.

Greaaaaat. The gorgeous and amazingly helpful stranger was now going to be less than an arm’s length away for the next 5 hours. “Oh! Well… That’s cool.” Virgil offered a bit lamely, dealing with his gay thoughts.

“Well, I guess since we’ve already spoken this much.. Nice to meet you, I’m Roman.” He shrugged, laughing slightly.

“Virgil. And this is my son, Patton. …Patty do you want to say Hello?” He asked gently, glancing down at him.

Patton was still clutching his stuffed animal to his chest tightly, but he turned to look at Roman and gave him a friendly little smile. “Hello, ‘m Patton. Nice ta meet you.”

“It’s very nice to meet you too, Patton. And I just wanted to tell you, that is an adorable little pig you have there… Is that Pua by chance?” Roman asked.

Great, is he also good with kids? Could this not be Virgil’s life right now?

Patton’s face lit up at Roman’s question, Roman finally seeing his usual joy across his face. “Uh-huh! He’s from Moana!”

“I love Moana! Definitely one of my favorites.” Roman nodded, still smiling.

“Me too! And I like.. umm..” Patton thought, him and Roman having a conversation about characters and movies until the flight attendants announced the safety demonstration and they had to quiet back down.

The explanation of everything that could go wrong and what to do incase it did definitely didn’t comfort Patton.. Or Virgil for that matter. It wasn’t hard for Roman to pick up on both of their nervousness. Once the plane began to rumble along the ground, Roman took it upon himself to go back to trying to distract the small boy, figuring if he was able to calm him down, his Dad would at least feel a bit better.

“Hey Patton, I have a question.” Roman said, getting the little boy’s attention back, seeing his eyes wide with concern about the moving plane.

“What is it?” He asked, still trying to be brave.

“If you could watch any of those movies we talked about… Which one would you want to watch?”

“Umm..” Patton thought, his gaze falling back on Pua in his arms. “Moana, I think.”

“Well, how about… As soon as they say it’s ok, and as long as it’s also ok with your Dad, we watch it together? Would that be fun?” Roman asked, smiling warmly.

“We could?! Really?” Patton was definitely surprised, looking up at him.

“That’s right! I have a bunch of movies with me, and that is one of them!” He nodded.

Patton turned back to Virgil, who had been watching this exchange, silently appreciating Roman’s help greatly. “Would that be ok, Daddy?” He asked, his expression pleading.

“Of course, Patty. That sounds like a great idea.” Virgil smiled, waiting for Patton to turn excitedly back to Roman before giving the man an extremely thankful look.

“Then it’s a plan! As soon as they say we can, alright buddy?” Roman nodded, shifting his bag between his ankles to ensure he’d be able to get the laptop out easily.

“Yeah! Thank you!” He smiled wide, showing off his big toothy grin.

Take off was definitely a little rough on the small boy, not at all enjoying the shifting and feeling of it all. But he still stuck it out, waiting until the announcement over the speakers told them they could bring out their electronic devices. Roman quickly pulled out his laptop, setting it up on his tray table and pulling out his headphones as well as his niece’s.

“You can use these to listen, I hope you don’t mind pink.” Roman smiled, handing over the child sized headphones and plugging them into one of the two headphone jacks on his computer.

“I love pink! Thank you!” Patton nodded, eagerly putting the headphones on his ears while Roman put on his own and set up the movie. He got the movie playing, Patton pushing the arm rest between them back up between the seats and instinctively leaning over against him so he could see the movie better. The two of them pretty quickly got engrossed in the film and didn’t hear the announcement that drink service would be beginning soon.

Virgil watched on fondly, smiling as Patton so happily clung to Pua and leaned into Roman.. Roman who was stupidly gorgeous and kind and helpful and was being so good with Patton and…

“Sir?”

Virgil’s attention snapped up out of the dreamy place it had settled as he watched the two next to him, seeing a flight attendant standing in the aisle. She smiled warmly back at him.

“Sir, what would you like to drink?” She asked softly.

“Oh, um… Ginger ale, please.” He responded, nodding somewhat.

“Of course.” She turned back to the cart and poured his drink into his cup before turning back to him and then glancing at Roman and Patton, completely transfixed on the laptop screen. She let out a soft laugh before looking up at Virgil once more. “I just have to say, you have the most adorable little family. Do you know what they would like as well?”

Virgil’s heart skipped several beats as he absorbed what she had just said to him. Family. Family? They looked like.. But.. “Oh, um.. I…” He cleared his throat softly, not at all sure what to do in this moment when he suddenly remembered Roman’s drink from earlier. “…Thank you. For them, a Diet Coke and an apple juice, please.”

Her smile only grew as she prepared the other two drinks and began passing them over, Roman and Patton only noticing when the cups were placed in their hands, offering up appreciative smiles and thank you’s before looking back to their movie.

This was a new development Virgil now had to deal with… But he couldn’t blame her, Patton was curled into Roman’s side, and with him looking over them so fondly, of course they looked like… God, this was not the kind of stress he had been expecting today.

It took nearly the entirety of Moana, but Roman glanced down when he felt Patton leaning into him more heavily than he had been before. It seemed his small Disney friend had fallen asleep. He let out a soft chuckle and closed the movie down, putting the headphones and laptop back into his backpack after he had expertly and softly slid the pink pair off the sleeping toddler.

It was then that Roman’s attention was finally back solely on Virgil, looking over at him and speaking softly so he wouldn’t wake Patton. “So, how are you doing?”

“Huh? Me? What do you mean?” Virgil asked, not sure what he was getting at.

“You seemed pretty nervous earlier, but I assumed you’d feel at least a bit better if he felt better.. So I kind of focused on calming him down first.” Roman chuckled, smiling at the small boy who had only cuddled more against him once he’d fallen asleep.

Could this man please be less thoughtful? He was not going to survive this. “…It’s.. Yeah. Probably a good call. I.. I don’t even know how to thank you for all this. This is just such a stressful trip and.. I don’t need to get into all of it.” Virgil felt himself beginning to ramble on a bit.

Roman softly raised an eyebrow, shifting slightly in his seat to be able to look at Virgil easier, feeling Patton easily adjust in his sleep to the small change without waking. “…If you’d like to, I’m happy to hear about it.” He smiled welcomingly, looking over him.

Virgil normally didn’t just open up… But he felt himself begin to explain his story. Telling Roman all about how it had just been him and Patton for a couple years now, but at least they had lived fairly close to some family. But the company he worked for was expanding and opening another location on the west coast, so when they offered him a promotion and a pay raise if he moved out to help… He couldn’t turn it down. Of course this meant moving to an unfamiliar big city from a fairly small town and he didn’t know anyone and he wasn’t really sure what he was going to do.

Roman listened intently, taking in his story and nodding to encourage him to continue. When it seemed Virgil had laid out all that he was going to, Roman made a small contemplative sound. “Hmm.. If you don’t mind me asking, what city are you moving to?”

Virgil glanced back up, refocusing his attention. “Oh, uh. San Francisco. Where we’re flying into.”

A smile spread across Roman’s face. “Well, welcome to the gayborhood!” He chuckled.

Virgil couldn’t help but laugh softly at that. “Thank you… At least I should fit in.”

A slightly strange flash of realization moved through Roman’s face but he quickly schooled it back down. “Oh I’m sure you will. And yeah, it can be a bit intimidating at first, but I promise you’ll get used to it after a while. I did, and I absolutely love the city now.”

Virgil definitely noticed that little look, but he didn’t dwell on trying to figure out what it meant. “…That is comforting. It’s just all so new.. And it’s weird to think I don’t know anyone in the state.” He shrugged softly.

“Well how about this? You at least know me now. I could give you my number, and if you ever need anything, just give me a call or send me a text. I’ll be happy to help out.” He offered, reaching into his pocket to grab his phone.

“…Are you sure? I feel like that’s asking a lot of you.” Virgil responded, still in disbelief of this man he had met.

“Yeah, of course. It’s absolutely no problem.” He opened his phone up to his contacts and passed it over so Virgil could enter in his information. One he had, Virgil handed it back and then gave his own over to Roman to do the same.

Once they had put their phones back away, they talked for the rest of the flight, still keeping their voices soft so they didn’t wake Patton. Thankfully, the toddler was able to sleep right through the announcement that they’d be beginning their descent into San Francisco and didn’t seem like the landing was going to wake him either.

As they were landing, Roman had a realization. “So, question. If you just up and moved across the country… You probably have a good amount of checked luggage?”

Virgil just nodded with a small blush. “…Yeah. I’d call it… More than a fair amount.”

Roman laughed warmly, quieting down as he felt Patton finally begin to stir against him. “Alright, I’ll at least help you get that from baggage claim, I have a feeling you could really use the assistance.”

“…Are you really sure? I mean, you’ve already done so much.” Virgil asked, also glancing down as Patton began to wake up and the plane was rumbling along the ground, taxiing them to their gate.

“Of course, Virge. It’s really no trouble. I don’t have anything I need to get myself, so I have two free hands.” He shrugged.

“…I have no idea how i’ll ever repay you, honestly. Thank you so much for all of this, Roman.” Virgil smiled softly, his cheeks still pink as he looked back over him.

“Oh don’t worry about that, I don’t need anything.” Roman was looking over Virgil’s expression, definitely noticing that gentle blush and deciding that if there was one thing he, himself, was good at… It was being bold. “…Although, if you really wanted to do something for me. And feel free to say no, of course. …I’d love if you let me take you out to dinner sometime.”


End file.
